Peter Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 With the amount of dribble we have been able to post over the past few months, the question has to be asked, do we have the longest off season in the world? Ian Crook seems to think so: http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/245663,crook-we-need-a-longer-season.aspx Should we have a longer season even if it means clashing with the AFL/NRL/Super Rugby seasons? What should the format be? How would a longer season affect the league? Over to you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M-H-F-C Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 this is where we need the FFA cup, i think the FFA cup will slightly solve this problem. While the a-league is still trying to compete for attendences and ratings we can't afford to compete with AFL/NRL, the season dates and format is fine IMO, however as i mentioned just before FFA Cup during Pre Season will sort of help, more friendlies perhaps, and maybe bring back the pre season cup they used to have? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 (edited) Not sure whether it's the longest in the world, but it would go close. Don't think there's any doubt that the season is too short, especially here in Melbourne where we lose all traction with the media once the season ends. I'm not sure about Ian Crook's solution however. I would prefer to see the introduction of two additional competitions rather than an extra round for the A-League. I would do away with the so-called 'finals' for various reasons, and replace it with an 'A-League Cup' which would keep all A-League teams involved for longer. Also, as above, introduce an 'FFA Cup.' By adding two extra competitions of a different format we give clubs two more opportunities to win something each year, and IMO sharing that winning feeling around is a very important part of building the game. Edited July 16, 2012 by jw1739 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 Wrong section? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 (edited) I have to agree. As a Heart fan from outside Australia is just painful waiting for the new season to start so I can watch some games. I think something most be done to keep the season longer.People here are suggesting a cup to introduced and I fully agree with this. If the the cup was to start sometime toward the end of the season and last another month or so after the grand final ends we would have more games to watch. Also a Super Cup ( which would pretty much be the Grand Final winners vs the FFA Cup winners) would also add another interesting game for us to watch and would gain a large attendance I would hope. Regarding to a Cup being introduced, there are the two structures the cup could have. It could be run either as the normal cups are ran in England or around the world with teams being randomly chosen to play against each other or it could be a Champions league type situation where there would be group stages, and then the top qualify and play quarter finals and semi finals etc. Edited July 16, 2012 by Vlad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazzaverx Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 Personally.. Im not a big fan of finals.. Yes it makes for excitement like in AFL and NRL.. Which is probably why they are used, to draw supporters. But football is traditionally about who finishes first. If I had it my way, longer season, with an FFA Cup. Would truly give glory to the greater team, as well as more football. Perfect example is the Mariners last season. Clearly the better team, but with a bit of finals luck which they always seem to carry, brisbane came out on top. Not taking anything away from Brisbane, they are a great side. But when it comes down to it, I don't care if it clashes.. I just want to watch more football 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heart_fan10 Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 obviously this will take years with the extra teams, but IMO, I think this would be the ideal format: - 14 team league; 28 rounds, each team plays each other twice (one home, one away) - Finals system at the end of the season as we have now, with this new finals format (top 6) - FFA cup (which will include state league teams and a-league teams entering the competition at a certain round); the final of this to be played a couple of weeks after the season grand final - 'Super Cup' as someone here suggested. Winner of grand final vs winner of FFA cup (to be played a week or 2 before the start of the next season) Top 3 teams in the league will be given an automatic ACL spot. Winner of FFA cup to also be given an ACL spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M-H-F-C Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 I like it everything but the last point, we have to see where our league sits in terms of ranking for ACL, Maybe winner of FFA cup or perhaps team that finishes 3rd goes into an ACL qualifier match against another asian team? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heart_fan10 Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 the a-league is getting better every season, and we've seen recently that a-league teams can definitely do well in the ACL. We need to give the a-league as much exposure as we can, which is why i think it's necessary that we get 4 champions league spots allocated to our league. It'll not only help with the development of players, but also with luring foreign players who want to be plaing champions league football. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 Four? Really? Three is too many for our crappy little league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 I do agree that four teams may be pushing the limit considering the fact that the A-League is a lot newer to the football scene compared to some of the other leagues such as the Korean and Japanese. What might work would be if 2 or 3 teams entered the ACL automatically and then another 2 to 3 teams say place 3 and winners of the FFA Cup would then receive a spot in a knockout stage. This would bring in more revenue for both the A-League and the ACL because of more games= more TV rights. Also I don't think the cup should be called the FFA cup, I am sure that we could come up with a more creative name for the competition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Aardvark Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 - 14 team league; 28 rounds, each team plays each other twice (one home, one away) . Just a heads up, a 14 team league means 26 rounds for everyone to play eachother twice. You don't play yourself. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borris Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 Agree we need a cup of some sorts ( and a cup not a toilet seat). Also incorperating the state leauges with the A leauge teams coming in at the later rounds. ACL = top 2 in leauge and cup winner = total 3 spots. Maybe even have a relegation with the top state team being promoted ( after a play off ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR9 Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 12 clubs, 33 fixtures + (at least) a 64 team FFA Cup (= 7 matchdays (or 13 with 2 legs, exc. final)). Finish the season off with the FFA cup final, which will have the same feel as a GF, and FFA will get thier desired sellout. Offer the '1/2' ACL place the FFA have to the champion, wich makes it a little more to play for then just silverware. A-League season is home and away only. I reckon that will make for the perfect football campaign in this country. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M-H-F-C Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 As much as i'd prefer no finals, i don't see it happening in Australian sport, it's part of our tradition where the 2 best teams play off to win the ultimate prize. What makes me sad is the fact that whoever finishes 1st gets a rather pointless "premiers trophy" or what ever, i mean We have Premiers who are the mariners atm, and champions who are the roar, yet noone values the premiers, we either need to make a bigger focus on the premiers and make it mean something or scrap the finals, which as i mentioned before wont happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR9 Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 The 2 best teams will still face off in the FFA cup, it should still have the same effect. Also think of the magical run of minow 'capturing the hearts of a nation'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M-H-F-C Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 Im all for an FFA cup, im against the Finals after the a-league season but i don't see them going. It's just in our tradition to have the seasons 2 best teams fight for the prize in 1 game, like AFL, NRL, Domestic Cricket it could go on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baresi Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 12 clubs, 33 fixtures + (at least) a 64 team FFA Cup (= 7 matchdays (or 13 with 2 legs, exc. final)). Finish the season off with the FFA cup final, which will have the same feel as a GF, and FFA will get thier desired sellout. Offer the '1/2' ACL place the FFA have to the champion, wich makes it a little more to play for then just silverware. A-League season is home and away only. I reckon that will make for the perfect football campaign in this country. This. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borris Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 12 clubs, 33 fixtures + (at least) a 64 team FFA Cup (= 7 matchdays (or 13 with 2 legs, exc. final)). Finish the season off with the FFA cup final, which will have the same feel as a GF, and FFA will get thier desired sellout. Offer the '1/2' ACL place the FFA have to the champion, wich makes it a little more to play for then just silverware. A-League season is home and away only. I reckon that will make for the perfect football campaign in this country. +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heart_fan10 Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 i still think we need to eventually have a 14-16 teams competition with each team only playing each other twice in the regular home & away season. If we keep playing every team 3 times in the regular season, AND we incorporate an FFA cup, there's the possibility of teams playing each other 5 times in the space of 7-8 months. IMO this is one of the main reasons the a-league has struggled to hold onto fans and have had people 'drop off' because they find the repetitiveness boring. It would help to make the 'big fixtures' even bigger and more special 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 For anyone interested the Belgian League of 16 teams has an interesting system. Apart from the relegation system it could apply to us. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_League Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Cup for the Belgian Cup competition. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadete Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) i still think we need to eventually have a 14-16 teams competition with each team only playing each other twice in the regular home & away season. If we keep playing every team 3 times in the regular season, AND we incorporate an FFA cup, there's the possibility of teams playing each other 5 times in the space of 7-8 months. IMO this is one of the main reasons the a-league has struggled to hold onto fans and have had people 'drop off' because they find the repetitiveness boring. It would help to make the 'big fixtures' even bigger and more special I tend to agree but the SPL over the course of history has had the same amount of teams and has had both some very boring periods like the 1990's and also some very interesting periods as well such as the 1980's. But sometimes I do think to myself: Playing CCM for the third time... Edited July 18, 2012 by cadete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FB. Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 12 clubs, 33 fixtures + (at least) a 64 team FFA Cup (= 7 matchdays (or 13 with 2 legs, exc. final)). Finish the season off with the FFA cup final, which will have the same feel as a GF, and FFA will get thier desired sellout. Offer the '1/2' ACL place the FFA have to the champion, wich makes it a little more to play for then just silverware. A-League season is home and away only. I reckon that will make for the perfect football campaign in this country. A-League must have finals. Without the threat of relegation - teams who are not in contention for top spots come the mid point of the season will have nothing to play for. A sorely missed point for those who argue for its removal. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ticker Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 A-League must have finals. Without the threat of relegation - teams who are not in contention for top spots come the mid point of the season will have nothing to play for. A sorely missed point for those who argue for its removal. There's no argument against finals for football in our country, it's in our culture and what the punters demand! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heart_fan10 Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 A-League must have finals. Without the threat of relegation - teams who are not in contention for top spots come the mid point of the season will have nothing to play for. A sorely missed point for those who argue for its removal. +1 these types of things keep people interested in the league and their teams Victory, who average 20,000+ crowds a season, technically weren't out of contention for the finals until their last home game which they had 11,000 people attend. Without finals, they would've been out of contention many many rounds before, and therefore getting crowds much less what they should be getting for a number of fixtures, not only one. We have to remember that we aren't living in europe where football is the number 1 sport, and our population isn't very big. Therefore we must do everything possible to make the league as exciting and less repetitive to keep people interested and going to the matches. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Footballism Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 Feel like we've had this discussion a million times on this forum. there's the possibility of teams playing each other 5 times in the space of 7-8 months. With the current format isn't it possible (and quite likely) to play one team 6 times in a season? So 5 times (assuming the fifth is a replay cup tie) is not that much. FWIW, this is hardly unusual in a top division too. Top teams in Europe could potentially play each other 9 times in a season. It has created more rivalries than anything tbh. A-League must have finals. Without the threat of relegation - teams who are not in contention for top spots come the mid point of the season will have nothing to play for. Agree, for it's immediate future. jw, mentioned the Belgian league above but I think something like the Swiss or Austrian league would be good to look at. Both have ten teams with relegation and a cup. Definitely can't get rid of finals until we have a successful relegation system and cup imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panta Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 welcome to australia.... first comes AFL, ( whatever other fucked up sports).... and we have 'soccer'... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Posted July 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 Having no interest in AFL, I am in favour of the model suggested by Ian Crook and more recently those at Perth. I don't like the finals and would rather see a cup competition instead. The two home and away fixtures would also allow for more derbys both for us as well as more games that allow for away trips such as Adelaide and Sydney. This should boost average crowds. Having more games with higher crowds looks better on telly and should lead to more sponsorship $$$$$. As for the length of the off season, "are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadete Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Ppl are always happy to suggest New A League Clubs and New Cups Comps feat Non A League teams for more games of football in this country to be played. However they are far less inclined to then go and watch these proposed New Club's games and those Cup games feat these Non A League teams. In short these things require money and support: Which is just not there atm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Ppl are always happy to suggest New A League Clubs and New Cups Comps feat Non A League teams for more games of football in this country to be played. However they are far less inclined to then go and watch these proposed New Club's games and those Cup games feat these Non A League teams. In short these things require money and support: Which is just not there atm. Chicken and egg? NQF were chopped prematurely. Their attendances were not too bad. FFA refused to allow Singapore interests to take over the club, and then paradoxically allowed Brisbane to be taken over by Indonesian interests. GCU were, I admit, a basket case, but Big Clive was prepared to keep funding them after putting $18m of his personal fortune into the club, and it was a hissy fit by Frank Lowy that saw the end of them. But for these issues we would presently have 12 clubs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Take away the finals and watch how quickly the league folds. Australians need it, most were brought up on "finals foody!!". Season is too short, no doubt about that. Only way to get a longer season is by bringing in more teams. But no where is ready that doesn't already have a team (Canberra?). So it really is all about consolidation and laying foundations for future expansion. Which is what the FFA are doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD. Posted July 30, 2012 Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 Feels like forever since the GF was played, wish the season would hurry up and start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchPride Posted July 30, 2012 Report Share Posted July 30, 2012 not as bad as last year tbh, season finished later, euro's, olympics + prem starts in 18 days or whatever, mon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadete Posted July 31, 2012 Report Share Posted July 31, 2012 (edited) not as bad as last year tbh, season finished later, euro's, olympics + prem starts in 18 days or whatever, mon. Exactly Last preseason we were jumping out of skins just to drink endless Mountain Dew at Wendouree West Pizza Hut and watch a bunch of kids in MH Shirts (None of us knew) play sokka against the Ballarat Red Devils in a swamp. Now that is true Off Season Blues. Edited July 31, 2012 by cadete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toogood18 Posted July 31, 2012 Report Share Posted July 31, 2012 Should have an FA Cup style cup with all the teams from the top state leagues playing against A-League teams in a cup style tournament after the end of the season, i.e. March and April, that would be unreal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchPride Posted July 31, 2012 Report Share Posted July 31, 2012 Exactly Last preseason we were jumping out of skins just to drink endless Mountain Dew at Wendouree West Pizza Hut and watch a bunch of kids in MH Shirts (None of us knew) play sokka against the Ballarat Red Devils in a swamp. Now that is true Off Season Blues. the times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Posted August 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2012 Here's a little "hard man" video to keep things going due to the length of our off season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Posted October 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2012 The wait is almost over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Posted May 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 I thought I would drag this thread back up as with the world cup coming up, I wonder if the lack of matches in the A-League is costing us (and other A-League clubs) quality players concerned they will not get match practice and fitness. Thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 If only they allowed MH 2 to play... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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